I remember the junction well, the paddy wagon used to stop there and from there on we had to walk to the coal faces. The return journey was easy because we used to ride out on the conveyor belts, laying on top of the coal, keeping a lookout for the likes of Chris Bland, the undermanager. Yes, it was illegal, you could get fined for it!

doncaster diva

I worked as a Leading Porter at Sturry Station from 1965 and Chislet Colliery Sidings came under the authority of our Station Master Mr. Haynes. The 'man in charge' at Chislet was called Charlie (can't remember his surname) and one of our unofficial jobs was counting the number of empty coal wagons on the morning goods from Ashford and pass this to Charlie by the internal phone system so that he could make the necessary arrangements for their disposal. There was an intermediate block signal box at Chislet which was switched in during the day.

My parents ran the Rose Inn at Sturry and many of our customers were from the mining community who lived both in Sturry and Hersden. My father was an ex miner from Yorkshire so as you can imagine there was many the ton of coal mined in the public bar of his pub. I remember that the 'pit buses' were operated by a gentleman called Gerry Lehane who's coaches we hired for trips from the pub.

Further to my earlier post #16.I have now dug out the relevant Railway Bylines magazine [Vol.6,issue 7,June 2001 for those who may be interested in acquiring a copy] and can add a little more info from that source:

Locomotives at Chislet when the colliery closed in July 1969:

NCB CHISLET No 2, Bagnall 0-4-0ST [2961 of 1950] Scrapped May 1969,-so just before closure!

My fault as I misread the book I was using. The 0-6-0 Yorkshire Engine Company loco is at Quainton Road named Chislet, the P class and the B4 are both on the Bluebell. I apologise for misleading people. There are many pictures on Flickr of the locos in question. I am suprised that the two 0-4-0's were scrapped as one of them was ex-Cadburys and both survived into the mid 1960's.

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The saddle tank you saw at Chislet could've been either the Bagnall 0-4-0ST, the Peckett 0-4-0ST, or the Yorkshire Engine Co. 0-6-0ST.Off the top of my head, both the 0-4-0ST's were scrapped, whilst the 0-6-0ST made it into preservation, see:http://www.brc-stockbook.co.uk/chislet.htm

The NCB's 'Austerity' locos in Kent were Betteshanger locos, I've never come across any mention of them working at Chislet. Two were scrapped on site at Betteshanger and the third was transferred to Snowdown, and subsequently preserved.

As Sentinel mentions 'P' class 31027 that worked there is also preserved, but it was never a NCB loco, of course, just being on hire from BR on occasions. [Ex-LSWR B4's were also hired out to Chislet]

I have mentioned in a post somewhere here that both the P class and Pecket made it into preservation on the Blue Bell Railway in Sussex. I have no idea whether the Pecket is still there but the P certainly is.

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steamengineerpmw

This is my first posting to this forum and hopefully one of the readers will be able to offer some information.My enquiry concerns the fate of the steam engines at Chislet Colliery after closure of the pit.I can remember seeing the silhouette of a saddle tank engine sitting on the coal spoil heap, it was visible when travelling by bus from Margate to Canterbury just before the bus entered Hersden village. I was only about 10 years of age at the time, c1971 and would have been travelling to Canterbury for a shopping trip or sightseeing.From memory I think the engine was left standing there for a year or two, seemingly never moving. I wonder what happened to it and whether it was one of the NCB Austerity engines or the smaller Chislet Pecket engine?Any information would be helpful in clearing up this research of my childhood memories.